InfoPath Dev

Hi again guys - need some help.

I have a two column layout.  the left column contains the description/label (in this case, Maturity Date) of the value/control (Date Picker) that will be entered in the right column, and I also have an Option Section right underneath the Date Picker Control, like this:

__________________________________ 

Maturity Date:  XXXXXXXXXXXX     

                       Option section 

__________________________________ 

 (X = a Date Picker Control.  It is also formated so that it aligns with the words Maturity Date.)

The user will have two options:  Pick a date from the Date Picker Control or choose a date or words that will be available in the Option Section.

What I want to do is if the Date Picker Control is NOT picked, I want to hide that control and move the Option Section UP so that the words and dates that are in the Option Section move up to where the Date Picker control was, so that it aligns properly with the description/label on the left column.  Does that make sense?

Currently, if the user does not pick a date and chooses a value in the option section, the form looks like this:

 ______________________________________________________________________________

Maturity Date:      

                       The earlier to occur of the close of Construction Financing or XXXXXXXXXXXX .

_______________________________________________________________________________

X = date from Date Picker in the Options Section.

That looks tacky.  Can anyone help me?  Thanks a lot

Aye

P.S.  The Date Picker Control's conditional formatting does not allow for this control to be hidden - go figure!!!???  And by the way, I'm using Infopath 2003

Yah date picker's cannot be hidden.

I would recomend using two sections, one to handle each of your scenarios. Then use conditional formatting to hide / unhide each section as you need. If they select the optional section and datepicker is blank then hide the 1st section and show the second which does not have the date but the proper formatting you want.

CLAY U DA MAN! 

Your Welcome - I was once a newbie as well. My goal is to help you change your alias from Aye Caramba to No Problema! :)

I would try adding your label to your sections too if possible and that may give you better formatting and work around the line up issue.

Another trick is using expression boxes to display text.  It can be undetectable to the user but give you the ability to have a bit more control of the layout. You can right click and use borders and shading and set it to none.

For the due date issue. In general only use the date picker if they really need to be able to choose a date. If you are just displaying a date or can use an existing chosen or calculated date use an expression box to display it read only.  InfoPath is very sensitive to horizontal space and only allows expansion or scrolling vertically. The simple reason is that if a line went long what would be the cascading effects and how would they be accounted for.

In these particular cases, you would want to do a concatenation.  That way all of your text flows perfectly.  So you would insert an expression box for the whole line. Insert the concat function. concat("Principal and outstanding interest and all other charges shall be due at the earlier to occur of (i) " + my:EndDate + " or (ii) upon maturity.") However I cannot figure out how to keep the date formating with this. So you would have to give up good date formating or build the format yourself.  This would involve using the substring functions to take a date and break up the year, month, and date into three seperate fields, change month to a text if you wanted and then concatenate them all back together for your line of text.  You will have to decide how much it is worth.

This is an example of what is possible but you would use an existing date or most likely calculate a date from the begining of the contract.  If you really are having them pick their own end date, they would have to pick it seperately to keep your display text pristine or live with what you currently have. One thought to is that you could have the text up to the date picker. Have your date picker but once they entered a value it would hide. Then the second part of the text would be the expression box described above and it would work the way you wanted it.

Have fun.